Greetings, I'm a the proud new owner of a 2000 Excursion Limited 4x4 V10 that I just picked up yesterday. The truck only has 90,000 miles on it and is really in great condition. I am thrilled with it and it is a tremendous upgrade over my previous truck - a '95 Suburban K2500 454 with 210,000 miles on it.

In getting the truck set up for proper tow use on my 20' enclosed trailer, I need to install my Tekonsha Prodigy brake controller. It looks like I can just buy a harness that will plug into the factory wiring (this truck came with the factory towing package). I am wondering if I am going to have to route the blue wire to the 7-pin connector in back or not and where the factory connector is.

In addition, I am going to need to replace the coils on this truck. They were diagnosed as 8 out of 10 being bad (even though the truck runs well). The previous owner suffered a dead PCM, and the dealer said if they don't get changed the same thing may happen again. I am wondering if the Motorcraft ones are the best or if there are others that seem to work well. I used Accel EDIS coils on the Town Car I used to own, and they lasted about 2 months before giving me problems. I'd rather not have that happen here.

Thanks!

-Ted

 

Here is a picture AKLIM took for me to help me locate my factory harness plug.

To orient yourself, the picture is taken from the drivers side floorboard, looking to the center, under the radio and climate control.



The brown plug is the Ford dedicated Prodigy harness. It's plugged into the gray, pre-existing OEM Ford tow harness.

Just buy the dedicated Ford plug in for the Prodigy, or make your own (like I did...splicing the Prodigy plug onto an open ended Ford harnes purchased at a trailer shop) and you'll be good to go. No extra wiring should be needed.

On all the Lightning boards, the different aftermarket COP's have all been tried, with varying degrees of success. One guy almost ruined his engine due to a set of aftermarket COP's.

Weapon X is the only proven coil over plug that works well with the Lightning, and those even need to be modifed since they are made for the Cobra 4V engines.

Based on my Lightning experience, I suggest you stick with the Ford Motorsport coils.

Stewart

 

Thanks for the picture, that tells me exactly what I need to know. Hopefully I can find the connector I need tomorrow and get the controller installed. Thanks!

 

No problem. You should be able to find exactly what you need from any trailer store.

Just look for the Ford specific harness. It will have the correct plug to plug into the OEM gray plug under your dash, with a length of wires, but no plug on the opposite end. It will just have bare wires. I just clipped the plug that went into the back of my Prodigy and spliced it onto the new Ford harness and it was perfect.

Stewart

 

Its easy I installed it in about 10 min,
Nick